Till Death Do We Part
by Ms. Videl Son
Summary: Part of the Lifelong Love series. “Well I don’t want you to love me anymore!” he bellowed, finally causing her to wince. “Just leave me alone! Leave me alone or you’ll get murdered, too!” Implied SasuHina.


**Title: **'Till Death Do We Part  
**Disclaimer:** Nope.  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – for themes of grief, death and broken hearts.  
**Spoilers:** If you didn't know that Sasuke's entire family was dead, then you haven't read even a single volume of _Naruto_.

**Summary:** Sequel to "Stuck On You." "Well I don't want you to love me anymore!" he bellowed, finally causing her to wince. "Just leave me alone! Leave me alone or you'll get murdered, too!" Implied SasuHina.

Funny how all my OneShots tend to continue...

* * *

Hinata held perfectly still as Yoko-san tugged here and there at her kimono, pulling out wrinkles, straightening her obi, and generally making sure that the heavy black material was unblemished by anything that could threaten its solemnity. 

"I believe that's all...," muttered Yoko-san, apparently speaking to herself. "How does it feel, Hinata-sama?"

The young heiress lifted her arms and looked down at her darkly-cloaked body. In complete honesty, it felt awful to be wearing the dark, gloomy kimono, but Hinata knew that wasn't what Yoko-san was asking. "Fine," she replied, dropping her arms back down by her sides as if they were dead weight.

"Good," Yoko-san said, sweeping her hand down Hinata's back to smooth out one last wrinkle. "I'll go inform your father that you're ready. Please be in the entryway in five minutes."

Hinata remained where she was, understanding that there was no need for response as Yoko-san bustled quickly out of the room. She turned her head slowly to the left, staring bleakly at her ghastly reflection in the full length mirror that stood against her bedroom wall.

The bits of her skin – face, neck and hands only – that were visible through the dark miasma of her clothing glowed in a surreal, ghostly way, making the seven-year-old heiress half wonder if it was herself that she should be mourning. With an expression of blank acceptance on her face and the pronounced lack of any color adorning her body, Hinata both looked and felt as dead as the people she was going to visit for the last time. If it weren't for the hot tears silently flowing down her cheeks, Hinata would have sincerely believed herself removed from the world of the living.

As she raised her hand to wipe away the anguished fluid, she felt her fingers straying from the path she had intended. Instead of touching her face, they found their way to the back of her head, clutching at the short strands of hair that only barely brushed the back of her neck.

Hinata closed her eyes to ebb the flow of her tears, but it was like trying to dam a river with a piece of paper; they dripped freely from her eyes and fell off the end of her chin, dotting the front of her clothing with moist splotches. Her tears were absorbed into the material, becoming one with the dark thread. Hinata felt the tears lingering long after they were gone, clinging to her death kimono as grief clings to those left behind.

"Hinata-sama," a quiet voice called from her doorway. Hinata turned toward the person calling her name, peeling her wet eyelashes apart with great effort. It was Yoko-san again, her eyebrows drawn together as if what she saw before her was more disturbing than their intended destination of the day. "Are you alright...?"

Hinata pulled a handkerchief out of her sleeve and dabbed at her damp face with it, erasing the evidence but not the profound feeling of her grief. "F-Fine," she lied, tucking the piece of white linen back in its proper place. "I'm r-ready."

Following Yoko-san out into the corridor, Hinata steadied herself for the day ahead. It wasn't going to be easy, especially for the person that Hinata had thought she'd hated above all others, but they were all going to get through it. Together.

After a bit of short, to-the-point conversation at the front door, the Hyuuga Clan departed for the Uchiha Family funeral.

— — —

As they entered the mourning house, Hinata couldn't help but feel like an unwelcome intruder even though she was hardly the only person in attendance. The house was thick with people dressed in dark colors crowding the yard, entryway and halls, all of them muttering in respectful, muted voices.

" – all of them – "

" – except the youngest – "

" – they say it was their eldest – "

" – I wonder what they did to deserve – "

" – I heard that he was abusive – "

" – I can hardly blame him, what with all that pressure – "

" – his father expected too much, now look what – "

The captured snatches of conversation made Hinata feel physically ill; none of the people swarming the Uchiha house seemed terribly concerned with the victims of the recent slaughter, only the tantalizing rumors surrounding them. It didn't matter to them that the entire Uchiha family, murdered ruthlessly, was dead save for two; one the murderer, the other a traumatized child.

Not for the first time did Hinata feel as if she didn't understand people at all. Even at the tender age of seven Hinata knew that there were more important things than the ugly rumors spreading about the fallen Uchiha clan.

Hinata broke away from her own family as soon as her father became occupied swapping dirty tales with another adult, unable to bear the ugliness of it all any longer. She wandered back outside, hoping that the rudely sunny day might help a little. It didn't, really, but it was still better than being inside.

She walked around to the side of the house where none of the adults seemed to be congregating, looking for a proper place to stay out of the way for a few hours. As it turned out, she hadn't been the only one with that very thing in mind; Uchiha Sasuke, the mean boy who had once put gum in her hair and told her that she was stupid, was sitting in the shade of the house all by his lonesome.

Dressed in more contemporary attire of suit jacket, tie and short pants, he lounged on the grass with his shoes kicked off and his bare toes wiggling in the dirt. His arms were crossed over his front as if he were a child of one of the guests forced to come along to a boring adult event that really had nothing to do with him, and his expression indicated the same. His eyes, however...

"S-Sasuke-san...?" Hinata called softly, venturing to step closer to her classmate.

Sasuke sat up straight, apparently startled, as his name was called. Upon turning and recognizing Hinata, however, he slouched back down into his previous position and gruffly replied, "What do you want, Hyuuga?"

"A-Ano...," Hinata stuttered, not sure how to answer him. Did she really want anything from the boy sitting before her, suspiciously rubbing his eyes as if they itched? "N-Nothing. I j-just wanted to s-see if you were a-alright..."

"Just peachy," Sasuke laughed, sneering. He threw his head back and looked upwards, his view of the clear blue sky obstructed by the overhang of the roof. "Best day of my life. Really super. You look horrible, though."

"S-Sorry...," Hinata replied, though she wasn't quite sure what good an apology was good for in this circumstance. She continued walking closer to Sasuke with slow, tender steps until she was only about a foot away, then ventured to speak again. "I-If you're going to m-miss school for aw-while, I can b-bring you – "

Sasuke interrupted her with an aggravated snort. "I'm not going to miss any school."

"M-Maybe you should stay h-home for a f-few days and – "

Hinata stopped speaking as she was yanked forward by one of the long clumps of her hair hanging down by her face and found herself nose-to-nose with Sasuke, who was breathing hard like he had been doing laps around the house instead of sitting up against it. His eyes, the only part of his anatomy that couldn't hide his secret feelings, were narrowed and hard as he forced their faces so close to one another's. At such close proximity, Hinata could count the tears Sasuke had attempted to blink away clinging to his eyelashes.

"What's the point of staying home, huh?" Sasuke shouted, even though there was no reason to raise his voice. Hinata would have been able to hear him whisper perfectly well. "There's nobody here! Nobody _left_!"

He yanked sharply on Hinata's hair as if to punctuate his point, but Hinata barely flinched. She doubted that having her hair pulled would hurt half as much as coming home to find her entire family murdered by the brother she looked up to and trusted for her entire life.

"I-I'll b-be here!" she found herself promising in a voice that was, surprisingly, as loud as Sasuke's. "I'll v-visit every day!"

Sasuke had apparently forgotten to hold back his tears because they were now dripping off his face in torrents of salty water. "Are you going to _love_ me, too? Are you going to love me in place of my family? _Huh_?"

"_YES_!" Hinata exclaimed, renewing her tears as well. She noticed, mildly surprised, that she wasn't stuttering anymore. "I will! I'll love you instead!"

With a scathing growl and a grunt of exertion, Sasuke pushed her away, causing Hinata to fall backwards onto the grass. She propped herself up on her elbows, horrified of the boy now looming over her looking angrier than she'd ever seen him before. "Well I don't want you to love me anymore!" he bellowed, finally causing her to wince. "Just leave me alone! Leave me alone or you'll get murdered, too!"

Turning on heel, Sasuke raced off into the woods that surrounded his backyard faster than Hinata could even stand. "Sasuke!" she called, stumbling as she tried to raise herself from all-fours. "_Sasuke!_"

But Sasuke was gone. He didn't even stop to look back at what he'd left behind.

* * *

**Authors Notes:** I just finished reading the seventh volume of _Harry Potter_, so I suppose you could say that I'm in the mood for death. I was planning to write this as a follow-up to "Stuck On You" anyway, but today just seemed like a good time to go ahead and do it. 

Btw, this is ALSO A ONESHOT (cannot stress that enough) so, no, there will be no more chapters. However, as with "Stuck On You," I'm not completely ruling out prequel(s)/sequel(s). I'm thinking of doing a life-long SasuHina series of OneShots that highlight the significant portions of their shared lives, but I'm not guaranteeing a bunch of them. I'll just post new OneShots whenever I feel like it. Sound good?

Oh, and I have another little portion of this fic saved in my computer that I cut out of the original. Let me know if you want me to post it; it's really short and, though it doesn't flow well with the rest of the story, it extends the plot a little. Let me know if you want me to add it on as a second "chapter."

Un-beta'd (what else?).

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– _Love can be black and white. SasuHina._


End file.
